Pirate Treasure Chest Hershey Bar Cake

I made this cake for my son Michael for his 7th birthday. He wanted to have a pirate birthday party. This cake doesn't use any decorating tips, but it is challenging. The cake is covered in Hershey Bars to look like wooden boards. 

What you need

2, 9 by 13 cakes (I recommend using bake-even strips when you bake them)

cake boards

contact paper

6, 6 packs of Hershey Bars

gold chocolate coins

ring pops

Simply Balanced Fruit Rope from Target

Simply Balanced Mango fruit strips from Target

chocolate ganache icing

A plastic box to put it in

Ingredients for a double batch of rice cereal treats

Pirate party supplies.  

Get all your pirate party supplies here on Amazon

If you want to make this cake, the first thing you need to do is find a plastic container or box to put the cake in and make a spot for it in the fridge. The plastic box that I found is 9.5 inches by 11 inches by 12 inches. Then cut a cake board (3 boards thick) to the appropriate size. Tape the boards together and cover it with contact paper. You need something very sturdy because this is a very heavy cake.

First I made the base of the treasure chest. To do this, I baked 2, 9 by 13 cakes and cut them both in half. I used a gluten-free cake recipe so this entire treasure chest cake was gluten-free. I also made the chocolate ganache icing ahead of time using this recipe. 

I spread a little chocolate ganache icing onto the cake board so that the cake sticks. 

Then I put the first layer of cake (half of a 9 by 13) onto the board, pressed it down gently, and iced it with chocolate ganache icing. 

Then I added the other 2 layers and iced each layer with chocolate ganache. This is the base of the treasure chest.

I finished icing the cake with chocolate ganache icing. Seriously consider just using a spatula to put board-like stripes in the ganache and not doing the Hershey Bars. It is challenging. 

Next, I carefully broke Hershey bars longways into strips.

Then I decided how many sections of each strip to use. I decided on 3 rectangle sections to go up the middle of the cake. 

I used rectangle strips that had 2 sections to do the sides of the front.

Then I continued covering the cake with Hershey bar "boards".

I purchased 3 boxes of Simply Balanced fruit rope from Target.

I put the fruit rope over the seams of the boards. I put a little chocolate ganache on the back of the fruit rope so it would stick. 

I also purchased Simply balanced mango fruit strips from Target. 

Then I cut a square of the fruit strip and cut a keyhole shape in it. 

I also cut a square to go behind the keyhole so you didn't see through to the chocolate boards and stuck it on the cake with a little chocolate ganache. 

I used the mango fruit strips to also cut out some handles for the sides of the treasure chest. 

I stuck the handles on the cake with a little chocolate ganache.

Then I measured the top of the treasure chest so I could decide how big the lid needed to be. I made a cake board 9 inches by 6.5 inches which is ever so slightly smaller than what I measured the top of my cake as. 

Instead of using cake for the lid, I decided to make rice cereal treats. I thought I could mold the correct shape, and it would be sturdier. But you could use a 2 layer cake and carve it to the correct shape.

I made a double batch of rice cereal treats which used 12 cups of cereal, 6 tablespoons of butter, and 20 ounces of marshmallows.

I put the warm rice cereal mixture onto the cake board and pressed it into the correct shape. 

After I had a good-looking treasure chest lid shape, I put the rice cereal lid in the freezer for 20 minutes to cool and harden. 

Now comes the hard part. I wanted the lid to be propped open so it needed to be supported with wooden dowels. I set the lid on the cake and held it up with my hands to get an idea of how tall the dowel rods would need to be. I used 5 thin dowels/skewers. I put 3 in the back and 2 in the front. The 3 in the back were shorter than the 2 in the front. 

It took a few tries to get the dowels the right height to properly support the lid. 

Once I had the dowels in place, I removed the lid and iced it with chocolate ganache. While the lid was off, I also covered the top of the cake with gold chocolate coins because it would be harder to do once the lid was on.

Then I put the lid on the cake and iced the underside a little bit so the white cake board wouldn't show. 

Next, I broke Hershey bars and covered the lid with "wood". I used a small knife to trim the hershey bars if they were too long.

Then I added the fruit rope and stuck it on with a little chocolate ganache. 

The fun part was the final decorating! I broke the gems off of several Ring Pops and put them in the treasure chest. I tried to hide the dowel rods with candy. I also sprinkled brown sugar around it as sand. 

My little pirate LOVED his treasure chest cake! I also bought all the pirate paper plates, cups, napkins, and favors on Amazon because the party stores didn't have much. Get all your pirate party supplies here on Amazon

If you have any questions about this cake, feel free to email me. phd.annie@gmail.com.

--Annie Pryor